


"I did. I laid an egg."

by amosanguis



Category: Baseball RPF
Genre: 2017 Spring Training, 2017-2018 Season, Chicago Cubs, Eggpreg, Gen, Mpregg, Nesting, POV Joe Maddon, World Series Babies, outsider pov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-02
Updated: 2018-07-02
Packaged: 2019-06-01 02:22:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15132989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amosanguis/pseuds/amosanguis
Summary: “One of your players is nesting.”Joe Maddon blinks at the equipment manager, says, “What?”





	"I did. I laid an egg."

**Author's Note:**

> Title is a line of dialogue from _We're Back: A Dinosaur's Story_ said by Elsa the Pterodactyl.

-z-

 

“One of your players is nesting.”

Joe Maddon blinks at the equipment manager, says, “What?”

Janet Stott holds up a hand and starts counting off on her fingers: “17 bats, 4 W flags, 44 uniform items – almost all of them infielders, and 2 bases – 1st and 3rd to be exact.” She leans closer, puts her hands atop Joe’s desk. “And if those numbers and which bases were taken don’t give you some kind of clue—”

Joe puts his hand up, snaps, “Yeah, I think I got it.” Then he sighs and stands and adds, “I’ll talk to them.”

 

-

 

One of the biggest problems baseball organizations faced actually had nothing to do with the sport itself: spring and early summer was nesting season and lord help the team whose equipment managers didn’t have the forethought to have extras of, well, _everything_.

Most of the prime nesting materials were bases, uniforms, and wooden bats. The bats were used to lay the foundation of the nest, the bases were for padding the floor, and the uniforms were for cushioning up the sides and, in some cases, making a canopy.

Janet was always good about keeping extras of such things, but all of those extras were at _Wrigley_ – not here in Arizona.

When Joe enters the clubhouse, he picks out Kris right away and runs his eyes over him – from this angle, Kris still looks lean, not obviously carrying. Not that that meant anything. For all Joe knew Kris was a multi-egg layer, laying not just a single large egg, but a 3- to 5-egg clutch. Those who were clutch layers may not show until one to two weeks before, and even then, it was only noticeable to those who were looking for it. But if Kris had had time to steal as much as he did, he was probably further along than he looked.

“Bryant, Rizzo,” Joe calls out. Kris’s head snaps up and Joe can _see_ the exact moment Kris realizes he’s been caught as Kris’s eyes go wide before flicking over to Anthony, who was also standing frozen.

Joe lets them panic – it served them right. If they had just come to Joe in the first place, Kris could have had unfettered access to whatever he needed – he wouldn’t have needed to steal it and then Joe wouldn’t have needed to deal with a pissed off equipment manager.

Kris slowly sulks over and, as he gets closer, Joe can now see a slight bulge sitting low in Kris’s stomach. Kris _was_ farther along than he had initially looked. Anthony was just behind him, dragging his feet.

Joe doesn’t say anything, just turns and gestures for them to follow. The rest of the club had surely figured out what was going on once their uniforms and bats started going missing, but Joe still wasn’t going to have this discussion in front of everyone.

Once they’ve settled in his office, Joe doesn’t give Kris, who was just starting to open his mouth, time to launch into an explanation.

“You should have come to me,” Joe says, interlacing his fingers and placing his hands on the desk in front of him. “We could have gotten you all the materials you needed, Kris.” Joe looks over to Anthony, “And you definitely should have come to me to tell me you two were planning on starting a family.”

Anthony squirms in his seat and Kris’s eyes drift up and to the side; Joe feels his stomach sink.

“It wasn’t––,” Anthony hesitates, voice taking a slightly higher note as he searches for the right way to phrase what he wanted to say, “uh, it’s not like we, well––”

“It wasn’t planned,” Kris interjects, deadpan. “But we’re keeping them.”

Joe let’s out a breath and leans back in his chair. “Do you know how many?” he asks.

“Four is the family average,” Kris says with a shrug.

“And I take it you haven’t scheduled any prenatal appointments,” it’s more statement than question, but Anthony and Kris shake their heads anyway.

“There were games,” Kris says, sounding defensive.

Joe doesn’t hold it against him. Those who were close to laying were intensely private and the whole notion of prenatal care was still far from being mainstream – many layers simply chose to rely on a combination of instinct and familial advice.

“You need at least one appointment,” Joe says as he picks up his phone and sends a text to Dr. Stephen Adams, the team physician, to set up an appointment for Kris. “I’d at least like expected laying and hatching dates.”

Kris purses his lips and crosses his arms over his stomach. “I don’t want to do that.”

Joe pauses mid-text and looks up Kris, arching an eyebrow, says, “I didn’t ask.”

Then Joe sees that Anthony’s starting to straighten up and squaring his shoulders and Joe knows that he needs to deescalate this. Now. So he softens his voice and adds:

“Kris, you took the option away from me when you didn’t tell me what was going on. Please, do this for me and for the club. I need information about what’s going on with you and I need that information to be exact. Do you understand where I’m coming from?”

Kris’s nostrils flare and, for a second, Joe isn’t sure Kris is going to go along with it – but then his shoulders hunch slightly and he nods even as he looks away.

 

-

 

Two days later, Dr. Adams tells Joe that Kris’ll be laying within the week – that the conception date was none other than November 2nd.

When he hears that date, Joe sighs and rubs at his forehead.

It was just another problem baseball faced that really only the winter sports dealt with: breeding season was at its peak during their playoffs, with pregnancies that lasted through the winter, culminating into nesting season just as Spring Training and pre-season was wrapping up and the regular season was starting. The NHL and NFL kept their players on suppressants, but MLB players – having played off suppressants throughout the season – felt that they slowed them down too much and dulled their instincts. And to go on suppressants in the spring was seen by many in the League as arrogant.

Joe closes the folder containing the doctor’s report and turns to look at the doc himself. “How long will he be out?” Joe asks.

“Bryant seems to be adamant that he can manage both the game schedule and nesting duties,” Dr. Adams explains, his expression twisted into something tight. “His mother and brother are in town and they’re both layers – they’ve been helping with the construction of the nest. Mrs. Bryant in particular. According to Kris,” Dr. Adams’s face twists again, “she’s helped to make the nest _portable_ – in case the eggs haven’t hatched before Opening Day.”

“Do you think that’s a possibility?” Joe asks.

Dr. Adams shakes his head. “I don’t think so,” he says. “Then again, layers have always been extremely secretive. The best we can do with Bryant is to go with it. With his mother in town, he has the help he needs and,” Dr. Adams lets out a sigh, “the help he _trusts_.”

Joe nods and lets out his own sigh.

 

-

 

Joe works out a schedule with Kris and Anthony – every few games he gives one of them off to spend time with the nest, even though they both insist that it’s not necessary, that they have enough time with the nest when they’re not at the field; Joe would prefer not to take any chances of one or both of them developing nest anxiety (which is exactly what it sounds like).

 

-

 

The Cubs media keeps a lid on Kris’s nesting for exactly three weeks before tweeting:

[@Cubs: WE’RE HAVING BABIES I REPEAT BRYZZO BABIES ARE ON THE WAY]

Anthony just responds with a winking face emoji.

Both tweets quickly go viral before Joe’s phone begins blowing up.

 

-

 

The eggs – three total – hatch on schedule on March 17th.

[@Cubs: Please join us in welcoming the newest Cubbies: Patricia, Lena, and Vincent Bryant-Rizzo! We'll have your stalls made up by end of day ;)]

And when Joe finally gets to them four weeks after they’ve hatched, he can’t help but smile and coo at each of them – each of their baby-fattened cheeks rounding even more as they smile right back.

 

-z-

 

End.

**Author's Note:**

> Names: Patricia - because they were hatched on St. Patrick's Day; Lena and Vincent are based on Kris and Anthony's middle names respectively.


End file.
